Lab Animals Lose Transportation

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) announced last week that two major carriers in the United States, FedEx and UPS, confirmed that they will not ship mammals for laboratory use, and restrict the shipment of some non-mammalian organisms. Neither UPS nor FedEx are major players the lab-animal shipping business, but the move does restrict the options for researchers and could limit the operations of small companies, such as Florida-based Xenopus Express, which relies on UPS to ship its laboratory-grade frogs.

The carreirs’ decision adds to the growing difficulty of shipping research animals. A number of airlines have already refused to carry live animals for research in response to pressure from PETA. “Although the FedEx and UPS declarations may be largely symbolic, they suggest that research advocates are failing to make the case for the use of lab animals, and they mark another success for groups such as PETA,” Nature reported.

Charles Hewett, the executive vice-president and chief operating officer at the Jackson Laboratory, voiced his concern that such decisions are short-sighted. “[It’s] troubling that the corporate leaderships of UPS, FedEx, and others yield to the pressure of a small minority who overlook the importance of what [animal research does] for preventing, curing and treating human disease,” he told Nature.

Comments

Excellent idea. The scientific community isn't in the habit of social actions and organizing anywhere near the level of PETA and its members. But, think of all the departments, universities, and colleges with UPS and FedEx accounts. Could administrators and purchasing departments be persuaded to cancel or renegotiate contracts? Would faculty be willing to ask their departments to do this? How does it start? What is the vision for a strategy? Launch a website and write some academic departments, hospitals, teaching colleges, and big pharma companies?

I suspect that this would only happen if it became impossible to transport animals. UPS and FedEx apparently carry only a small number of animals. But, yes, that is what I would advocate. I would start carrying a gun were I to do this. These people have resorted to violence.

I'm staying healthy with a vegan diet and regular exercise. If I were to get sick, however, I still wouldn't want others victimized in a quest for cures, be they humans or other animals. There is no moral justification for it.

This will only end when the scientific community is willing to boycott businesses that bow to the pressures from PETA. Although most of us find such actions to be distasteful, PETA is willing to do anything, including engage in violence, to impose their ethical standards on the rest of us. Without pushback, there is no cost to UPS or FedEx to cave in to extremism.

Studies show that vegans live about 15 years longer then their non vegan counterparts. Vegans also have a higher capacity for empathy, are more intelligent, and more attractive then meat eaters. One of the key determining characteristics for identifying psychopaths is the torture and killing of animals. Consequentially, I would hypothesize that supporting this practice identifies you as being, at least somewhat, psychopathic. The lack of ability to empathize with the suffering of life outside of your genome, is a likely determining characteristic of one that is unable to empathize with members of their own species. This lack of empathy is a clear characteristic of an underdeveloped, or damaged brain.

I myself have undergone severe head trauma in my life time, having suffering multiple concussions. Only recently, though many years of rehabilitative mental training, and a strict vegan diet, have I been able to overcome my own personal lack of caring. Slowly the fog fades away. I feel that my empathetic capacity grows every day, as does my connection with all of the world around me. Please take care of yourself, for we can only change the world, end all suffering, and evolve beyond anything we ever thought possible, by changing ourselves first.

Dear Andrew,I could not agree more! I too suffered severe head trauma that led directly to me being a vegan and ipso facto more attractive. If only these so called scientist could be the beneficiaries of head trauma, then they too would become vegans and gain the empathy and intelligence we vegans are so privileged to enjoy. I also admire your hypothesis that experimenting on animals to save human lives and reduce human suffering is a sign of being a psychopath. If only we could get funding to test this hypothesis! Perhaps, like our fellow advocates suggest, we could test various prisoners. That would not make us psychopaths would it?

I somehow doubt that a strict vegan diet is the cure all. I know a lot of strict vegans, and they are not all that healthy, they just think they are. They are pasty white, and as they age, begin to have all sorts of medical issues. Vegan, not me, we were not born as strict vegans. Our ancestors were Omnivores, which means meat, vegetables and fruit. Oh and they drank milk. Too many fad diets are being touted as the cure-all, guess what I would rather enjoy a life of approximately 90 years, eating what I want (in moderation) that to live a life of maybe 92 years (eating sticks and grass). Andrew you are a maroon.

An interesting suggestion Will. Through inaction the scientific community has allowed the animal rights movement to pick off transport companies one by one until we are now facing a looming crisis that will slow down the pace of some medical research, and make other research more expensive. This is not a new problem, it's been building for years http://speakingofresearch.com/...Perhaps we need a bit of coordinated action from Universities, research institutions, model organism research communities and medical research charities to counter the pressure from animal rights groups. After all for all their talk I've never seen any evidence that any major transport company has suffered a drop in revenue because they have refused to cave in to AR demands (though threats and harrassment of individuals appears to have succeeded in forcing some of the smaller companies to pull out) . And if the companies won't change their minds we need to make sure that laws are passed to force them to carry lab animals...as is the case in Canada...after all it is in the national interest to support medical research.

People who trust animal models (ethical issues aside) don't understand that there's no predictive value in animal models. It's only after human clinicals that you can say "Well, the animal and human results lined up". Only that doesn't happen about 99% of the time. You say "Science staggers forward, sometimes by trial an error". This is true, but of that ~1% of the time when human and animal models get similar results, you still don't get any predictive data from them.

If you want human-applicable data and a win for everyone, allow repeat convicted violent offenders to earn some prison credit by enrolling them as test subjects instead of animals.

Andrew don't know where you got your information from but vegans don't live longer than meat eaters. You ever been in a bathroom with a vegan? While no ones poop smells good a vegans will drive you out.